TRENTON — A state board overseeing teachers' retirement funds today declined to investigate what it could do to stop Gov. Chris Christie from taking money meant for pensions to deal with a budget crisis.

The board of the Teachers' Pensions and Annuity Fund — the largest of all the pension funds in New Jersey, with nearly 200,000 active and retired teachers — deadlocked 2-2 on a proposal to hire outside counsel to review Christie's plan and suggest potential legal action.

The Republican governor, after promising higher pension contributions in his first term to repair the state's beleaguered pension system, announced last month that he would cut two of those payments — from a combined $3.8 billion to $1.38 billion — to cover a two-year budget shortfall of $2.7 billion that surfaced in the last few weeks.

Christie is taking the first $900 million through an executive order signed last month. He is also planning to take $1.5 billion in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, but is seeking approval from the Democratic-controlled Legislature for that move first.

The teachers' pension board today was split on whether to consult the state Attorney General's Office for advice, or retain an "independent" outside law firm to investigate what the board's "rights and responsibilities" are now that Christie is cutting pension payments that were promised under a 2011 law.

Christie's 2011 pension overhaul gave the boards of the various state pension funds the right to sue on behalf of their members if the state made reductions to planned payments to the pension system. It also gave that right to individual public workers.

"Governor Christie's plan violates their contractual right and will hurt the stability of the pension system, including the TPAF," said Erland Nordstrom, a member of the pension board representing the New Jersey Education Association teachers' union. "We must have access to fully independent legal counsel."

Paul Orihel, who represents the state's pension actuaries on the board, said that, as a state agency, the board's first step should be to consult the Attorney General's Office.

"It sounds like we're going around the next step of the process," Orihel said, citing "rules and regulations" for state agencies.

Nordstrom said "the AG also represents the governor's office in this matter ... it would seem to be a conflict of interest."

In the end, Orihel and Janice Nelson, a Christie administration representative, voted against Nordstrom's proposal.

The TPAF board chairman, James Joyner, another representative of the teachers' union, voted with Nordstrom.

"We have a responsibility to the members, who partially fund TPAF ... to find out what our rights and responsibilities are," Joyner said.

The president of the New Jersey Education Association, Wendell Steinhauer, said after the meeting that the teachers' union will still move ahead with its own lawsuit seeking to block Christie's plan.

Steinhauer said it was disappointing that the teachers' pension board declined to take action, and noted that 23,000 active or retired teachers had signed letters urging the trustees to oppose Christie's plan.

“The TPAF is seriously underfunded, and TPAF members want to explore every legal avenue to ensure their pensions are secure," Steinhauer said in a statement. "Perhaps the boards of trustees of the other systems will show more independence and take up similar motions.”